Intelligent, ambitious and brilliantly realised, Born to Die defies any backlash.
What makes Born to Die so richly fascinating – and what marks Del Rey out from the standard issue "I’m hot, you’re hot" pop starlet – is her preoccupation with Hollywood archetypes of American femininity, and her ability to shape-shift between them. So, on the stately, bloodstained title-track, Del Rey plays femme fatale, deliciously stoned and doomed, with an imperious vocal to match. On the addictive, sugar-rushing Off to the Races she’s trailer trash living the high life, her vocal veering deftly between husky cynicism and hiccupping glee; while on the tender This Is What Makes Us Girls she’s the poor little rich girl looking melancholically back on youthful hedonism.
It all reaches its apotheosis on National Anthem where Del Rey, dissatisfied with merely being an all-American girl, becomes America itself, offering up deadpan slogans like "money is the reason we exist" before demanding utter patriotic devotion on the swaggering chorus. If that sounds knowing that’s because it is, not to mention intelligent, ambitious, and more interesting than anything Adele is likely to write even by the time her inevitable 72 collection hits the shelves of the future. It’s also brilliantly realised, thanks to Del Rey’s extraordinary delivery, her ability to slip from deep toned haughtiness to breathless ecstasy to velvety vamping – often in the same gorgeous melody.
Adele remains unbothered sitting at the top of the UK charts and that bank account of hers. This happens when stars get too big, the media backlash starts
They didn't lie I prefer Born To Die over 21, Born To Die is more diverse and musically more complex FROM MY POINT OF VIEW, 21 is simple but it works and is a good album but is just not my cup of tea, too many fillers no shade intended!
